Arbuckle Wilderness, Ardmore

We were here about 4-5 years ago and had an amazing time. Today, it sucked. Lots of donkey's goats, deer and Emu's...where are the good animals that used to be there? Last time we were hit up by 20 Zebra's today only 2 and they were behind a fence, same with the camels...they used to chase the cars today there were only 2 and they were well off the path of cars. The park was filthy, the restrooms were dirty, it is so run down it was pathetic. We took our family visiting from out of state and were embarrassed. Where can we get our money back? PS: Where are the giraffes?

Just got back from day here with the family. Worth it at twice the price. (Places like Disneyland and Universal charge $80 per person. I got my whole family in for that.) I read the other reviews and think they must have gone to a different Arbuckle Wilderness. The one I went to had so many animals that I kept having to hong my horn to get them to move out of the way so I could drive on. In the walk through section they had a new Mining thing for the kids which wasn't there the last time I went 3 years ago. My kids loved it.

We took our five grandchildren to Arbuckle Wilderness a little over three years ago and they had a blast -- we were thinking about going back this year (2012)but after reading the reviews I think we will save our money for something else -

Who do you contact about being scammed out of $70+ for a family of four?? We were EXTREMELY disappointed and angry about the money we had to pay for this joke of an attraction. Run down doesn't even describe the condition of the property. Filthy, trashy and embarrassing for the state of Oklahoma. We felt really sorry for all the people that drove up from TX!! RIP OFF

We had been to Fossill Rim last year and my then 10 year old loved it. They had exoctic animals galore so I expected to experience the same ( we were camping at Lake Murray). My family paid 17 a peice which ended costing us 70 dollars. What we saw was mostly emu's, lama's, and donkeys only- with a few oxen and water buffalo. What dissapointed or made us feel even more taken advantage of was how they had around five cages with signs warning us to not get out of the car but there were no animals in the cages at all! The only exotic animals were the rhinos which were 100 to 200 yards away. It's very decieving so please don't waste your money!!!

We've been there before, a few years ago, and remembered it as being fun so we decided to take our kids there. Well, big mistake. It's rather expensive 17 dollars per adult, a little less for the kids, but ours are too young to pay. It was a TREMENDOUS disappointment. We expected to see giraffes, well, they are in Florida, and we were NOT told ahead of time The roads are so bad I was actually getting scared I am told there are zebras, but they didn't come down There are rhinos, behind a fence and far away. That's pretty much it for the exotics, but yes, you can feed lots of donkeys, various goats, and emus. The walk through zoo was also closed, and no, we weren't told about that ahead of time either. Tremendous tremendous waste of time and money. We are NOT going there again. Next time we'll try the one in Gainsville, or the G.W exotic cats.

Must agree with the last two reviews. I would not recommend this park to anyone. The animals were in terrible shape. We are not PETA type animal weirdos but do beleive these animals could stand to have some world zoos come and take these animals away. The walk through was like an abandoned amusment park. The "new" reptile house literally had 6 reptiles in glass cages, about half of the available cages. Then some parakeets in bird cages sitting on what looked like TV trays. The Giraffes and tigers advertised in all the literature were nowhere to be seen. Do not go here!!! Overpriced and badly taken care of.

Please look at the dates when you read these reviews. This place is a total waste of money. The road through the park is completely unsafe. I counted maybe 12 different types of animals and no giraffes. The giftshop was a complete ripoff. I was charged around $52.00 for the drive through with 2 x adults, 1 x 7 year old and 1 x 2 year old. I will definitely never go back to this place again and would encourage everyone to do the same.

I remember coming to this park when I was younger and it was so much better. Now someone is about to say, "Well everything is better when you're young!" I'd agree except I've also been about ten years ago and while it had gone down some when I visited ten years ago, it has definitely gone downhill even worse now. The whole thing felt like walking through an abandoned amusement park. The first thing I noticed was that the gift shop had the A/C set at a high temp. That's usually the first clue that an attraction is skimping because that's where you want people to spend time, especially after being outside in the heat, and they're not going to do that if the shop is stuffy. After walking through the shop and buying our tickets, we went outside to the walk through area. Just about everything was closed, shut down or just looking plain abanonded. The pond was low and murky. Now Oklahoma has been in a drought so that's understandable but someone had dumped some siding into the pond and since it was low, it was now poking up out of the water. No one had bothered to pull it out (or pull it further in at least). We went to buy feed for the turtles, fish and ducks and were told at the little snack shop that they were closed. They were kind enough to sell us two bags when they saw we were going to pay with cash so we at least lucked out there. After feeding the pond creatures, and since there was nothing else to do in the walk through (all the animal cages were empty), we got in our car to do the drive through portion. To start, the road through the drive portion is in very sad shape. Now we couldn't buy any animal feed at the gift shop but we were assured that we could buy it at a stop inside the drive through. What really caused us an issue is that we asked if they could take a credit card from us inside the drive through. The worker in the gift shop assured us they could. She was wrong. They could not. We were lucky that we did have some cash on us so we still got feed. So what about the animals in the drive through? We saw mostly llamas, deer and donkeys. We also saw a few emus and ostriches. Then near the end we saw some antelope style animals, a few buffalo and two rhinos. The animals mostly were clustered in a few spots so it turned the drive into a few stops for animals and then a slow crawl through as we looked for more. One of the biggest disappoints was the missing giraffes. I remembered them from both times I had been previously and someone else with us who had been just within the last three years remembered them as well. It was what we were looking forward to the most. I don't know if they are gone or simply weren't out due to the heat but it was disappointing. I think the worst part is some of the animals looked in poor health (scraggly, bald spots, that kind of thing) and not well cared for. I'm hoping it's just the heat and not actual lack of care but seeing any animal, particularly one in a controlled environment not in good condition is just depressing. In closing, it seems this park has been sliding downhill for some time and has just about reached the bottom. It's sad to see what used to be such a great place come to such a fate. I don't think I'll take the time to return again and I urge you not to take the time to go at all. I'll lay Arbuckle Wilderness to rest in my head and I hope it will rest in peace.

My review is very similar to the post from 5/31. I was anxious to take my family by reading a very fluffed description from Fun Times Magazine. We drove 2 hours, arrived to be greeted by wasps parading around the outside gift shop. Not a soul in the building, after hollaring hello, someone finally helped us. Watched us make the descesion to do the walk through first. Only to see geese, turtles, 1 black swan, a few parrots, 1 tortoise. The signs say Monkey's this way, and there were only empty cages. No education plaques to tell you anything about the few animals that were there. I could have gone to a city park to feed geese. Then the "snake house" smelled of mildew, no light to see inside, mabe about 6 snakes & lizards all together. Where was the petting zoo? Where were the workers? The drive through was okay, only about a dozen different animals 2 rhinos, 1 giraffe, 1 white tiget, so far away could hardly make out, alpaka/lama, donkeys, zebra, some deer, goat, & horses. If you're in the are the drive thru might be worth $11, since you have to pay for the feed seperate, but to make a drive out there, & to be lead by the advertisement, the OKC Zoo is a better investment. Shoot Wynewood, Little River, Tulsa aquarium, spend you time elsewhere please!!!